(1/5) Remembering Srila Narottam Das Thakur

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila Narottam Das Thakur's Disappearance
18 October 2019, Nrisingha Palli, part 1

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.
Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay.
Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay.
Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay.
Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay.
Rupanuga-guru-varga ki jay.
Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay.
Vrinda Devi, Tulasi Devi, Sri Bhakti Devi ki jay.
Sri Shyama Kunda, Radha Kunda, Sri Giri Govardhan ki jay.
Sri Mayapur Dham, Sri Nabadwip Dham, Sri Vrindavan, Mathura ki jay.
Sri Purusottam Ksetra ki jay.
Baladev Subhadra Jagannathjiu ki jay.
Akar Math-raj Sri Chaitanya Math ki jay.
Mayapur Yogapith ki jay.
Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay.
Tandiya sakha-math-samuha ki jay.
Sri Mather sevak-vrinda, bhakta-vrinda ki jay.
Ananta-koti Vaishnav-vrinda ki jay.
Sri Gaudiya Acharya-vrinda ki jay.
Tridandi-pad-gan ki jay.
Saparsada Sriman Nityananda Prabhu ki jay.
Saparsada Sriman Mahaprabhu ki jay.
Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay.
Suddha-bhaktir-vighna-vinasa-kari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay.
Sri Sada-Siva Gangadhar, Giriraj Govardhan ki jay.
Samagata Sri Gaura bhakta-vrinda ki jay.
Srila Narottam Das Thakur ki jay.
Tadiya disappearance festival ki jay.
Harinam sankirtan ki jay.
Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay.
Suddha-bhaktir-vighna-vinasa-kari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay.
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

Today is a very good, very auspicious day – Srila Narottam Das Thakur's disappearance day. Srila Narottam Das Thakur lived most of his life in Vrindavan, but he is actually originally from Bangladesh. Devotees can come anywhere, in any form, and all devotees, not only the great ones, are eternal associates of the Lord. They preach Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's conception, they preach about Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu, who gave the Holy Name to this world. Krishna Himself came in the form of His Name, and great Vaishnavs, such as Srila Narottam Das Thakur, preached about it everywhere.

Srila Narottam Das Thakur composed very good songs; we sing many of them every day. You can find Srila Narottam Das Thakur's glorification in our songbooks Sri Gaudiya Gitanjali.

After Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, there was Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Jiva Goswami, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami, and after them there was Sri Acharya Srinivas, Sri Narottam Das Thakur and Sri Shyamananda Prabhu. They preached the real conception of Sri Chaitnaya Mahaprabhu properly – they did not preach it in any other way, they preached it in the proper way. They preached and showed us by their own examples what jive daya is, what Name ruchi is, and what vaishnav-seva is.

Srila Narottam Das Thakur took initiation from Srila Lokanath Das Goswami. If you come with me to Vrindavan, you can see there Srila Narottam Das Thakur's samadhi, Srila Lokanath Das Goswami's samadhi and Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur's samadhi – all of them are served at the temple of Sri Sri Radha Gokulananda. You can see their activities in Vrindavan...

Actually, Srila Lokanath Goswami promised that he would not take any disciples, but Srila Narottam Das Thakur's intention was such that he was determined, 'By hook or by crook, I must receive initiation from Lokanath Goswami!' How did it become possible?

Srila Narottam Das Thakur was a very well-educated man. In those days, it was very rare to find a graduate, but Srila Narottam Das Thakur was like that. Not only that, he did not come from an ordinary family – he was born in a big landlord's family. His birthplace is in Sripath Khaturi Dham, Rajshahi; it is in the north of Bangladesh. Rajshahi is the name of the district, and Kheturi is the name of the village.

When Srila Narottam Das Thakur came to Vrindavan, there were not so many buildings there. Vrindavan means 'Vrindavan': many jungles and forests. It is comprised of twenty-four forests; sometimes we also say 'twelve forests' (dvadasa vana). Now we can see only two forests – one is Nikunjavan, near our Seva Kunja temple Kunja in Vrindavan, and the other one is Nidhuvan, a little distance away. Now they have cut all the other forests and covered the place with buildings, but in Srila Narottam Das Thakur's time there even were no toilets, bathrooms or any other facilities like that. There are still many places in India that have no bathrooms, even in UP (Uttar Pradesh). In such areas, people pass stool in a field; they are habituated to that. They take a pot of water, go somewhere to a forest or a field, pass stool and clean themselves. There are still such practices in India. But now slowly, slowly it is changing.

So, in the olden days, all the sadhus who lived in Vrindavan lived under trees and passed stool in some nearby forest, too. Srila Lokanath Goswami was very, very old, so he could not even go that far to pass stool. Srila Narottam Das Thakur saw it, and whenever Srila Lokanath Goswami passed stool, Srila Narottam Das Thakur would take that soil with the stool, remove it and clean the place in this way. This is the service that he did. Srila Narottam Das Thakur cleaned Srila Lokanath Goswami's stool. Eventually, Srila Lokanath Goswami noticed it. He wondered, 'Who is cleaning this place?! I come here every day, but I do not see any stool here, and the soil is gone, too. Who is doing it?' He found out that Narottam was coming and cleaning that place, and he finally agreed to give him initiation.

That is Srila Narottam Das Thakur's story.

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Length: 35 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Remembering Srila Narottam Das Thakur
2) Intertwined Glory of Guru and Disciple
3) Aural Darshan
4) Helpless and Blind
5) Drops of Nectar